A PAIR OF NORTH EUROPEAN PATINATED-BRONZE AND ORMOLU VASES

The impetus behind the design of these vases is clearly Empire, however, the use of entwined snakes as the handles for vases dates back to antiquity. Such vases were engraved by Piranesi and a Roman marble example survives in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (accession number: 2007.31a, b).